Claudia "Charli" D.

Gordon Family YMCA

Charli Davis’ story is one of perseverance. Charli began coming to the Gordon Family YMCA in September of 2015 to work on her health and physical fitness. She was a consistent, hardworking face for several weeks, until she contracted pneumonia, which she fought for an entire month. When she was finally able to come back to the Y, Charli made a FitPath appointment. This goal was quickly pushed back when Charli suffered a heart attack. After months of extensive cardiac rehab, Charli came back to the Y, looking to regain her health, but faced yet another major setback. Due to her Parkinson’s, Charli took a fall and injured her back, resulting in a severe brain injury.

She began rehabilitating her back and brain injury at the MultiCare Clinic at the Gordon Family YMCA. In July, Charli’s doctor cleared her for activity and recommended adding weights to her workouts to help with her balance and Parkinson’s. She was ready for a strong comeback. Charli has since lost over 30 pounds and continually lifts weights 2-3 times a week, and rides her recumbent bike daily. Charli has seen increased balance, decreased blood pressure, and decreased cholesterol in addition to her weight loss.

“The staff here at the Y care about you and want you to be better,” Charli said. “No one pressures you and they are so for you happy when you do something good.”

Staff members helped her on her journey by challenging her, checking in on her, and keeping her accountable. Charli takes pride in how far she has come with her health. One of her proudest moments was seeing her name on the ActivTrax leaderboard in the Healthy Living Center amongst her other hard-working fellow members. She hopes to see her name up on the board every month.

“Before the Y, I really wanted to just get started,” Charli said. “Now I can’t stop and I don’t want to stop!”